The Key to a Familiar
by RedhathackerSin
Summary: Louise was ready to banish her title of Zero with the Springtime Familiar Summoning Ritual. Unfortunately for her she got a commoner. However, this isn't just any commoner, this particular commoner wields a giant key and can do magic even better than she can. That's just not fair.


Louise Francoise Lu Blanc de La Vallière tried to calm her beating heart as she slowly took deep breaths. She had been called forward by Professor Colbert to attempt the Springtime Summoning Ritual, which would bond a familiar to her for life. She was nervous, not because of an unknown familiar that might not get along with her or hate her, but rather because she had acquired a nickname over the course of her Academy Career. Louise the Zero.

This unfortunate nickname came to her because she couldn't ever seem to cast anything in the standard four elements of Tristain. She hated the nickname, but it seemed to follow her no matter how hard she tried to rid herself of it. However, today would be different. She _would _succeed and she _would _summon a familiar. Taking one more deep breath she began to chant.

"I, Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Valliere, in the name of the great Five Pentagon Powers, following my fate, summon a familiar."

For a moment nothing happened and Louise could already feel the bitterness of being unable to summon anything at all, but then an explosion happened. Most of the students tried to hit the deck to avoid the explosion, but some of them decided to make comments as well.

"Geez, can't Louise the Zero ever do any spell right? This has to be some sort of record."

"Man another explosion! I guess that's why she's Louise the Zero."

"Did she even summon anything with that?"

After the last comment the voices died down as the smoke began to clear. Sitting on the grass of the Academy grounds was a boy. For minute the boy did nothing but stare at all the people gathered around him, but then he jumped to his feet.

Louise took in the boy's that she had apparently summoned appearance. He had messy brown hair that stuck up in weird angles and a pair of deep blue eyes that were scanning the crowd even now. His mouth was being tugged into a puzzled frown and he was wearing some of the strangest clothes Louise had ever seen.

He had some sort of black trousers with yellow belts that criss-crossed holding two red pouches in place. On his upper body he had a blue undershirt with a strange black shirt over it that had white lining the entire thing. On his feet were yellow and black shows that seemed to have a zipper on it. His ensemble was complete with a pair of black fingerless gloves covering his hands and a chain that held some sort of crown like pendant on his neck.

His frown seemed to deepen as he took in the assortment of students and familiar s that had gathered from the Familiar Summoning ritual. Unfortunately all Louise could thing was that her luck was horrible. _A commoner? How did I even summon something like that?_

She was about to ask Professor Colbert for a redo, but before she could he was already speaking.

"Well then Miss Vallerie, I think it's time you completed the ritual."

That got her to snap out of her stupor.

"But Professor, I've never heard of a human Famialiar before, and he has to be a commoner! Let me retry!"

The Professor merely smiled sadly at Louise's declaration. "I'm sorry Miss Valerie, but the Ritual is very strict and you did summon something, so please complete the ritual."

Louise grumbled to herself as she pulled out her wan from the folds of her uniform and made her way to the strange boy she had summoned. Finally she drew level with him, and was annoyed to see that she only came to around his chest. She pointedly ignored all the snickering that was coming from behind her and chanted, "My name is Louise Françoise Le Blanc de La Vallière. Pentagon of the five elemental powers; bless this humble being, and make him my familiar."

And with that said she then leaned forward and kissed the boy, whose eyes widened in surprise and a blush appeared on his face, causing herself to blush as well. The boy seemed as though he was about to speak, but before he could say anything he suddenly screamed in pain and clutched his left hand. Louise was shocked by this type of reaction and was unprepared when the boy seemed to lose motor control for a moment and stumbled, sending the two of them sprawling on the grass.

Louise blush had gotten even more pronounced with this development, especially when she heard the laughter of her peers.

"Guess Zero is the best name after all for you Louise!"

However, the laughter was silenced as Colbert stepped forward to inspect his student. He knelt down and took a peek at the hand that the boy had been clutching revealing an intricate set of runes.

"Congratulations Miss Vallière, you have successfully completed the Springtime Summoning Ritual!"

He then stood up leaving the boy collapsed on Louise although he seemed to be awakening if those groans were anything to go by. Colbert then turned to the rest of the students.

"Good job everyone, now return to your rooms and get some rest."

With his piece said Colbert then floated off into the direction of the castle that the students called home and the students followed until it was only Louise and her newly summoned familiar left. Finally the boy woke completely and tumbled off of her, before stretching languidly and yawning.

"Man, that hurt way more than I thought anything could, and I've been pretty hurt before."

Louise could only stare at her familiar in bewilderment as he had just clearly said something, and she didn't understand a word of it. Growling she got up and with as much dignity as she could, brushed the dirt from her uniform.

"Well let's go."

She then proceeded to walk away, but stopped after a moment realizing that the boy wasn't following her. She growled in frustration as she marched back to him and poked him in his chest.

"You better stop standing there staring at me like an idiot and follow me! Now!"

He stood there for a moment then pointed to himself with a puzzled expression gracing his face. Louise couldn't help smashing her palm against her face as she reached out and grabbed the commoner's shirt and began to drag him across the grounds to the castle.

* * *

Sora was confused and he was beginning to get a little annoyed, which was a pretty epic feat for him. He had been forcibly dragged through some sort of castle to some little girl's room after she had kissed him and made him keel over in pain. Then there was the fact that he was now sporting some sort of rune that he didn't understand on his left hand and to top it all off the girl had been trying to chat with him, but he didn't understand a word she was saying.

"You have to realize we don't understand each other by now. What kind of world am I in anyway, you guys can clearly use magic, but you don't have some sort of translation spell?"

His words just seemed to anger the girl and in a fit of rage she pulled out her wand and aimed it at him. Sora started at this, he may not know what type of magic was being used, but he sure didn't want to be hit by it if the girl was still angry.

"Now hold on-"

He was going to continue, but the girl said something and an explosion went off in the rather enclosed room, sending him flying backwards. Groaning he sat up as he heard through the ringing of his ears, "-ther explosion! Why can't I ever do anything right!?"

Sora sat up quickly when he heard this.

"Hey I can understand you now!"

The girl looked at him funnily for a moment as if it was taking her brain a second to catch up to the fact that she could now understand him.

"Well, it seems we can finally communicate. It has been quite trying, attempting to converse with a commoner who can't even speak the language."

Sora rubbed his head sheepishly as he chuckled lowly, yeah it was pretty awkward for him as well since he had no idea what the girl was saying.

"Well, thanks for that translation thing, although I could've done without the explosion. Is all your magic here so violent?"

For some reason this caused the girl to turn bright red. Sora wondered why, it was a simple question to answer and there was no need to get embarrassed over it, right? The girl huffed as she crossed her arms haughtily before stating, "It doesn't matter, now that we can understand each other I suppose proper introductions are in order. My name is Louise Francoise Lu Blanc de La Vallière, what is your name Familiar?"

Sora scratched his head at such a long name; he was hoping the girl didn't expect him to remember that all at once.

"My name's Sora. Just Sora, and why are you calling me a Familiar?"

Louise then decided to plop down on the bed with her legs crossed. She was wearing a white blouse tucked into a black skirt with black stockings and shoes. She also was sporting a yellow tie and a black cloak wrapped around her small frame. Her features were soft, and she had pinky eyes and pink hair. Sora was wondering what he was even following her for.

She then cleared her throat and began to explain, "I needed to summon something to be my familiar, to help me out as a mage."

Sora nodded his understanding, so it was kind of like when he summoned Simba or one of his other summons. Louise then continued, "A Familiar is obedient to their master, and helps to guard them and does other things as well, and will always follow their master's orders."

Sora decided to interrupt Louise here, "Do you mean I don't get a choice in becoming your familiar?"

Louise looked surprised to be interrupted if the scowl she was sporting was anything to go by, but she answered Sora anyway.

"We've already entered into the familiar contract, those runes on your hand are proof of that."

She then sighed before scrambling her hair in frustration.

"I wanted a dragon, or a griffin! Instead all I got was a stupid commoner."

She then got up from her position and undid her cloak which fell to the ground. Sora was curious as to why she would do this, before he glanced once more at Louise and realized that she had turned away from him and started stripping. Now Sora was a growing boy, and this was a bit much even for him.

"Wait a minute what are you doing!?"

He said this as he attempted to cover his eyes. Suddenly he felt fabric smack him in the face. He cautiously pulled it off to see that Louise had changed into some sort of purple nightgown.

"Clean those for me Familiar, and have them ready by morning, I need to sleep after this crazy day."

And with her piece said Louise fell onto her bed and went right to sleep, leaving Sora standing awkwardly by the door. Shrugging he decided to make the most of it and go try to clean the clothes, after all how hard could it be to find where the people did the laundry here?

Apparently a lot harder than he had thought it would be. He had spent the last hour trying in vain to locate some form of laundry room or something similar, but he came up with nothing. It was kind of annoying, he knew that he didn't have the best sense of direction, but it should have been easy enough to find something. He was just about to call it quits, when he turned around and bumped into someone.

"Kyahh!"

Apparently that someone was female, judging by the voice. She was currently rubbing her behind as it seemed she had fallen on it from bumping into him and by the linens strewn about her person Sora deduced that she was perhaps one of the people in charge of the laundry in this castle. However, he was a good guy at heart and hated to do anything to make someone uncomfortable, so with a sheepish grin he held out his hand and good naturedly commented, "Sorry about that, I didn't mean to startle anyone, I'm just a bit lost."

Now that he got a good look at the girl he ran into he had to admit that she had her own kind of charm. She was petite and dressed in what appeared to be a standard maid outfit for the school, with sensible shoes as she must do quite a bit of work. She had soft gray eyes and black hair that was kept back by a maid headpiece.

"Oh no, I should be the one who's sorry! I wasn't paying attention!"

Sora grinned at that and the girl seemed to blush as she got up and began to gather everything that she had dropped. Sora moved forward and began picking up thins as well.

"Here let me help."

In no time the two had picked everything up, and the girl seemed to have fought down her blush. Sora then decided to attempt to get directions to whatever type of laundry room they had in this castle.

"So where do you guys do all this laundry at anyway, I kind of need to clean something for someone."

The girl giggled and responded, "Well since I've inconvenienced you so much already, how about I lead you there?"

Sora's eyes lit up at that and nodded emphatically. "That sounds like a great idea, and I could help you out a bit as well! By the way, my name's Sora, what's yours?"

The girl blushed and looked down demurely before mumbling a, "Siesta."

Sora grinned as he took in Siesta's appearance.

"Siesta, huh, that's a cute name, so how about those chores?"

Siesta giggled and blushed a little at Sora's earnest gaze. The two then began the trek to deal with their chores. On the way they heard whispers in the hallway and Sora looked around the corner to see a blond boy trying to woo a young girl.

"Ah, Katie my dear, it will be extraordinary to try some of your soufflé at some point, you simply must let me taste the wonders of your cooking!"

Sora blinked at that, and then blinked again, he glanced over to Siesta and noticed that she seemed to have hearts in her eyes at the two nobles sequestered in the hall, but Sora really didn't feel like dealing with either of them at the moment. If his interactions with Louise were anything to go by, nobles were pretty annoying and thought that they were holier than thou.

Sora rolled his eyes and nudged Siesta gently in the ribs, getting a small squeak from the maid. He gestured with his head as his hands were full of clothes, but the maid seemed to understand in any case and nodded before they began moving along.

Eventually they came to a rather small brook outside and Sora marveled at how vast the night sky was here as well as the two moons that dominated it. Sora had seen some pretty amazing skies in his journeys, but this was definitely one of the better ones.

For a little while they worked in silence with Siesta teaching him how to use the cleaning utensils for laundry in this world. He scrubbed in silence, but Sora had always been a friendly type of person and hated long silences more than anything.

"Hey, Siesta."

Siesta looked up and saw that Sora was looking to the sky at the moment, but he glanced down and gave her his full attention.

"I was wondering if you could tell me a little about yourself?"

The next hour the two cleaned the laundry and Siesta told Sora about her home life. He learned that she came from a pretty big farm family and was working as a maid in order to make ends meet for her family. Sora grinned as Siesta's face seemed to light up the more she talked about her family.

Eventually Siesta realized that she was doing most of the talking, even though it seemed that Sora was a good listener and had been following along. She decided to turn the tables on him and asked, "What about you Sora?"

Sora seemed surprised by her question.

"What do you mean?"

Siesta held a frown as she examined the brunette trying to decipher if he was playing a trick on her, but it seemed he was honest in his curiosity.

"I mean what about your own family. Where are they?"

Sora chuckled at her question, but Siesta couldn't figure out what was so funny about it.

"Let's just say they're worlds away at the moment."

Siesta wasn't backing down from her question, however, as she soldiered on.

"Surely you at least have some stories you could share?"

Sora chuckled once more, but acquiesced to Siesta's request.

"Well, now that you mention it…"

The next hour was spent with Sora regaling Siesta with tales about his friends, and multiple embarrassing situations they had found themselves in. By the end of the hour Siesta was cracking up laughing.

"…so then the both of us went crashing into the sand, it was great."

Sora felt himself gazing back up at the sky as he looked back up at the stars a look of melancholy gracing his features.

"I know I'll see them again, this isn't the first time we've been separated, after all, there's one sky and one destiny."

Siesta felt his change in mood and decided to stay silent as he gazed longingly at the stars. Whatever he was feeling he seemed to snap himself out of it and with a grin approached the laundry that they had already done.

"Well, I think that's about everything that we need to do, let's get back inside shall we?"

Siesta could only nod her agreement as they gathered the clothes and head back into the castle, before they split. Siesta went one way, probably towards whatever quarters the servants of the castle were given, while Sora walked back towards Louise's room.

He gently opened the door so as not to awake his sleeping "Master" and silently placed the clothes on the table within the room. He looked around and realized that there was no bed or sleeping bag, so he would just have to tough it out on the floor.

Shrugging he lay down, placing his hands above his head to be at least a little bit comfortable, before closing his eyes.

* * *

Sora's eyes snapped open in the morning light, just in time to see a foot come flying at his face. With a strangled yelp he rolled out of the way of his attacker and leapt to his feet. He was seconds away from summoning the Keyblade, when he realized that it was just his short Master. Eyeing her up and down, he had to admit that she looked somewhat cute in her disheveled state. Like an angry kitten as she glared at him.

"Familiar, why didn't you wake me!?"

Say what now? When did she instruct him to wake her, maybe she did it as he was leaving the room last night and he didn't hear it?

He sheepishly scratched his neck as he tried to explain.

"Well, I didn't hear you request that. I did get the laundry done though!"

Louise growled in annoyance at his response, before huffing and crossing her arms.

"In the future you are to wake me at sunrise!"

Sora gaped at his tiny Master before shaking his head in exasperation.

"Okay then, glad we cleared that up."

Huh, she must have really been annoying him, he was actually using sarcasm, he almost _never_ used sarcasm, except when battling enemies of course. Before anything else could be done, Louise was once more stripping in front of him.

"Gah! What are you doing!?"

Louise looked at him as if he were some kind of unpleasant bug as she stood there in all her glory looking expectantly at him.

"What am I doing? You should be dressing me, Familiar!"

Yeah that wasn't gonna fly with Sora, he drew the line at having his very own human dress up doll.

"You know what, I'm gonna just wait for you outside."

With that said he left a spluttering Louise in his wake as he swept out of the room, closing the door behind him. Could he have handled that better? Maybe, but it was definitely worth it.

He waited and a few moments later Louise walked out of her room fully clothed, although she was still fuming at him for disobeying her orders.

"When I order you to do something, I expect it to be done! Just for that, you're getting no breakfast for today!"

Louise looked as if she was about to continue her rant, when a trilling laugh echoed behind her.

"Well, well, well. It seems that Louise the Zero can't handle her commoner Familiar."

Walking up to the two was a bronze skinned, red haired woman whose breasts were ridiculous and nearly had Sora's eyes popping out of his head at the low neckline that she was sporting. What kind of school was this for this girl to be walking around like that?

Suddenly a giant lizard…thing approached the bronzed beauty and she immediately hugged the animal to her well endowed chest.

"It's not anything like the bond that Flame and I have already started to form! It just goes to show why we call you, Zero."

Louise turned red at the new girls obvious taunting, but whether that was from rage or embarrassment, Sora wasn't sure.

"Um, not to be rude or anything, but who are you?"

The girl seemed surprised that Sora had addressed her, but nevertheless she struck a seductive pose.

""I'm the beautiful mage who's passion burns over into everything she does, you may call me Kirche the Ardent!"

Sora felt his eye twitch slightly as he tried to look anywhere but Kirche's dipping neckline. He wasn't sure how successful he was judging by the warmth he was feeling in his cheeks, but he noticed that Kirche merely seemed to smirk at his reaction.

Louise on the other hand was still looking murderous, especially since he had seemed to take notice of Kirche.

"Familiar! I forbid you from talking with this utter cow! Let's go!"

Her piece said Louise then stalked off in the direction of the dining hall, not that Sora knew that that was where they were going. Sighing to himself, Sora gave a half hearted wave and began to follow Louise towards the dining room. Maybe he would be able to think better on a full stomach.

Sadly for him, Louise had other plans, when she noticed that he was entering into the she nearly lost all her composure. Luckily for her she recovered quickly and grabbed him on the arm, forcibly dragging him out of the dining hall with her.

"What do you think you're doing?"

She was talking lowly and it was coming out as more a hiss than anything else, but Sora narrowed his eyes at her tone. He had been taking crap from her ever since he arrived on this world and she was starting to wear even his infinite patience thin.

"Well, I thought it was breakfast time."

Louise glared at him before she answered, "Yes, all the _students_ are having breakfast right now, you're just a lowly Familiar!"

Sora dragged a hand over his face; it was getting harder and harder to reason with this girl. Sighing, he let his annoyance go. It wouldn't do him any good anyway.

"And just where am I supposed to go?"

* * *

Twenty minutes later and Sora was currently trying to figure just what the hell a floating eyeball was doing in the court where all the other Familiars had gathered.

"Okay, dragons I get, I've seen a mole somewhere, and I think Kirche actually had a salamander, but what the heck are you supposed to be!?"

Sora was so busy ranting at the eyeball that he hadn't noticed that Siesta had actually gotten right behind him, so he nearly jumped out of his skin when she spoke.

"Oh, well that's a bugbear."

Sora kept his reaction to a manly shriek, but damn it that girl could walk quietly. Siesta merely laughed at his reaction, but soon her gaze turned questioning.

"What are you doing out here in any case, Mr. Sora?"

Sora sighed as she tacked on the Mr. again. He had been trying to break her of that habit nearly the entire time they had been doing the laundry last night. Sora just shrugged as he plopped down on the grass and looked to the sky.

"It's been pretty weird being here for even just these few days, the nobles are pretty strange here. Hey Siesta?"

Siesta looked over to the spiky haired brunette and with a gesture gave him permission to continue.

"How do you become a noble anyway?"

Siesta frowned at that, although Sora lacked quite a bit of knowledge, surely he knew about the status of the nobility.

"To become a noble in Tristain, the very first thing one needs to have is magic."

Sora looked incredulous at this explanation and slightly lost, so Siesta forged on.

"However, that's not the only requirement, it's also important to have land and wealth. I've heard that's it's possible to buy nobility in other places such as Germania, but here you _must_ have magic."

Sora shook his head in disbelief at Siesta's explanation. If he was going to follow that logic, then he would probably fall under the category of noble. Even though Magic was one of his weaker talents, he could still wield a variety of spells, and he knew that they could be pretty devastating. Not to mention he was _the _Keyblade Master.

"Well, that's just crazy."

Siesta glanced around nervously at Sora's blunt statement, but the only ones who could have possibly heard it were merely the Familiars that had gathered on the lawn. Sighing gently to herself when she realized that no noble was going to burst from the ground and kill them both, she was about to reprimand him for talking so freely, when a large rumble echoed throughout the court.

For a moment Siesta couldn't place the strange noise, but then it happened again. She slowly glanced over to Sora and realized that he was sheepishly rubbing the back of his head.

"Hey, Siesta, sorry about springing this on you, but do you know where I'd be able to get some food? I haven't had anything to eat since I was summoned here."

Siesta tried not to laugh at Sora's sheepish expression, but a giggle escaped anyway.

"I think I have the perfect place in mind."

* * *

Sora was currently in heaven. The stew he was devouring and the bread that complimented it so perfectly was some of the best food that he had ever eaten, beside him the head chef of Tristanian Academy of Magic, Marteau.

The head chef was actually a fairly burly man with muscles bulging out of his chef uniform and a kind smile for Sora when he had been dragged into the kitchens by Siesta looking for something to eat.

"I think this might be the best meal I've ever had."

Marteau threw his head back and laughed boisterously at this declaration before slapping Sora on the back. Luckily he had swallowed before hand and didn't waste any of the food by spraying it out from the force of the hit.

"I like you, lad! You've got spunk in you! If that little pink haired noble becomes too much, just come to the kitchens and we'll set you straight!"

Sora grinned at the good natured chef, before his eyes slid over to Siesta, who was currently trying to take about ten dishes at the same time. Taking pity on the pour girl, Sora got up and walked over to his new friend. It seemed he was just in time as Siesta stumbled and two plates went flying out of the maid's hands.

"Woah there!"

Sora's exclamation was able to penetrate Siesta's panic and before she knew it he had snatched the dishes out of the air, and taken a couple more from her arms.

"How about I help you out in return for your generosity so far, Siesta?"

Siesta felt a blush creeping up her neck at Sora's earnest desire to help her and could only nod her acceptance at his gaze.

"Great! So, what is it you need help with anyway?"

* * *

Siesta forced back a sigh as Sora went about the dining hall, serving nobles as if he had been doing it all his life. He was pretty food at getting the things that they needed and then coming back to Siesta for more directions. If she wasn't careful she might find herself out of a job before the day was up.

It looked as though Louise had yet to notice that her Familiar was once more back in the dining hall, but that might just be because Siesta had forced Sora into a tuxedo to see how he would look. She had to admit that he cleaned up nicely, except for his gravity defying hair, but that just seemed to add to his charm in Siesta's opinion.

Unfortunately for her she wasn't paying attention and before she knew it both her and Sora were close to the same blonde noble that had been wooing a young lady last night. However, it looked as though he had a new lady to woo if his smitten expression as he talked with another blonde female.

"Oh but Montmorency! I would love nothing better than to take a try of your soufflé!"

Siesta was wondering if this was this noble's standard line to all the females, when Sora did something quite unexpected. He asked a question.

"Montmorency? What happened to Katie?"

Siesta felt her face pale as the blonde playboy looked over at Sora, as well as the new girl he was attempting to woo. She felt like she might hit Sora later for that.

"Oh? And who are you? Wait I think I recognize you from somewhere."

The blonde boy then pondered Sora for a moment before snapping his fingers in realization.

"Wait! Aren't you that commoner that Louise the Zero summoned?"

Unfortunately for everyone involved, it seemed that Montmorency had caught what Sora had said,

"Guiche! What does he mean about Katie!? You said that you only had eyes for me!"

The situation was bad, but it became a whole lot worse as Siesta saw the girl from last night walking towards the group curiously. When she spotted Guiche and Montmorency arguing, she immediately seemed to get the idea of what was happening.

"I thought you had changed, Guiche! I thought you had left her!"

With that said Katie fled from the scene looking as if she was going to burst into tears. Seconds later Montmorency also left, leaving a stunned Guiche in her wake. Siesta was about to discreetly try and get Sora to leave the dining hall, but before she could accomplish her task, the blonde boy had rounded on Sora.

"You! You made two beautiful flowers cry! Have you no shame!?"

Sora blinked as Guiche tried to lay the blame on him and Siesta could see that this might not go over very well. Sora then began to try and defend himself.

"Me!? I'm not the one trying to get with two girls at once!"

Guiche's anger seemed to flame at that and he whipped a rose out of his cloak.

"Well then shall we settle this in a duel of honor?"

By that time the entire dining hall was silent as they watched the two boys arguing. Siesta was now terrified for her newfound friend. Dueling with a mage was suicide for a commoner. How was Sora going to get out of this?

"Okay."

Siesta thought she might faint as she heard his reply. It seemed that he didn't understand the severity of the situation if he agreed to a duel with a mage so easily. However, it looked as if Guiche had just been knighted. He puffed his chest out proudly.

"Meet in the Vestri Court within the hour, I have no desire to smear you all over this pristine area of dining."

Sora merely shrugged in response to Guiche's terms.

"Sounds fine to me, I wouldn't want to mess this place up anyway."

Guiche merely grinned at the brunette and Sora grinned back.

"I look forward to making you a smear on the ground, Commoner."

With his final piece said and a swish of his cloak, Guiche was then walking out of the dining hall, no doubt making his way towards the Vestri Court to prepare.

Siesta looked at Sora and was fairly certain that she wanted to slap her new friend for being so reckless, but before she could someone beat her to it. That someone was in the form of a diminutive pink haired girl, who had forgone the slapping and had opted to go straight for the kill and drop kicked her Familiar in the chest.

Sora groan from the surprise attack, but Siesta was silently cheering the little mage on for a change. Sora really needed to understand the severity of the situation.

"What the hell is wrong with you!?"

It seemed that Louise was quite pissed off at her Familiar if the rage that was rolling off her in waves was anything to go by.

"A commoner can't beat a noble! That's common knowledge! Why did you have to go and pick a fight with Guiche!"

Sora rubbed his chest as he got up before he attempted to explain.

"Louise I-"

However, it seemed his explanation was not to be as his tiny Master decided to continue her rant.

"Why couldn't I have gotten a dragon!? Or even some other animal, a commoner is just too much! You're going to go to Guiche this instant and beg for forgiveness, if we get there quick enough, he'll probably forget all about the slight you made against him!"

Sora looked mildly uncomfortable at the little mage ranting at him, but he tried to forge on nonetheless. Siesta thought it was rather admirable to do so.

"Louise, if you let me-"

Unfortunately, he was once more cut off from his explanation by his ranting Master, it seemed she was not in the mood to let him even try to explain.

"Where do you even get the idea that you can match a noble anyway!? You're going to die and I'll be a failure as a mage, who couldn't even keep here Familiar for a day!"

Siesta had to admire Sora's patience, it seemed that he had quite a bit to spare, but it looked as if he was about to reach his breaking point if that twitching eyelid was any indication.

"_Louise!_"

Louise finally stopped mid rant as she turned her attention onto Sora. Sora merely grinned at how he was able to get Louise to finally pay attention to what he had to say.

"Don't worry so much, I'm pretty sure that this Guiche guy isn't going to be that hard to beat."

Siesta had to hand it to Sora, he certainly was fearless. Or stupid. It seemed that the two often went pretty close together in Siesta's experience, but how could the brunette hope to defeat a noble?

It looked as if Louise was going to protest, but Sora merely shook his head and then proceeded to walk out the dining hall, leaving the two girls by themselves as the rest of the student body had already been migrating toward the Vestri Court.

There was a moment or two of silence before Sora's head popped back in.

"So where is this Vestri Court place?"

Siesta shook her head in exasperation and saw that Louise was doing much of the same. How was Sora going to survive?

* * *

Sora was utterly calm as he walked towards the center of the Court. It seemed as if the rest of the student body had followed Guiche into the Court and were expecting a massive beat down. Well they would be in for a surprise. He wasn't going to be going down very easily.

For all of Guiche's posturing, he doubted that the boy had seen actual combat like Sora had, and he doubly doubted that he had fought anything half as strong as the things that Sora had either. Sora was lazily stretching out his arm, loosening the shoulder muscles, before he raised both his hands above him to stretch the muscles needed to really wield a Keyblade. Although he was fully capable of going full throttle with no warning, it always felt better to loosen up if he was given the chance before a fight.

Sora looked around at all the students and noticed that most of them looked eager, and definitely expecting him to get the short end of the stick in this coming duel. He also noticed that his pink haired Master and new friend Siesta had also come to watch. He felt a bit of gratitude that they at least seemed a bit concerned about his health, but he wouldn't put it past Louise to be concerned more about her reputation than _him_.

That was fine, she was about to find out that she had summoned one of the most powerful beings in all the worlds. Now then time to see what rules were in this duel that he had been challenged to. Hopefully it would be as fun as the fights he had faced on Olympus, but somehow he doubted that it would be nearly as much of a challenge.

"Well then, Guiche, how do you want this to go?"

Guiche looked puzzled at his question, before he answered Sora.

"Go? It goes by me beating you into the ground until you can't move anymore. There is no other alternative, Commoner!"

Sora scowled at that reply. It wasn't the reply that riled him up as much as it was that Guiche hadn't even bothered to learn his name.

"I have a name you know, it's Sora."

Guiche made a gesture with his hand as if Sora's name was of little consequence to him. Well, it seemed that he was being underestimated, that made things a lot easier.

"I suppose it's about time to start? How do you want to signal?"

Guiche once more plucked a rose from his shirt and plucked a petal from the flower.

"By the time this petal falls to the ground, your fate is sealed, Commoner."

Sora almost growled at Guiche deliberately not using his name, but tensed as he saw Guiche raise the petal and then drop it.

"My name is Guiche de Gramont, fourth son to the famous General Gramont. My mage name is the Bronze, and you'll find out why in a moment."

The second the petal hit the ground, Guiche had dipped his rose once more and another petal fell, but when this one hit the ground, a bronze golem rose from the earth.

Sora looked the construct over and had to admit that it looked like the mage could probably intimidate someone with that. It was at least two heads taller than Sora and vaguely humanoid, but Sora had a feeling that it probably wasn't very durable. Hmm, should he go for all out flash? Nah.

Sora decided to take that thing out up close. With a thought his Keyblade flashed into existence, causing the crowd to gasp and start chattering.

"What is that?"

"I've never seen anyone make something appear like that before!"

"Is that a giant key!?"

"Wasn't he supposed to just be a commoner?"

"What kind of magic was that anyway?"

"No seriously, is that a giant key!?"

Sora smirked to himself as he felt the familiar weight of the Keyblade settle into his hands. It seemed the original was the best for dealing with this, no Keychains necessary.

However, before he could make a move, it seemed that Guiche had other ideas.

"You think you're protected by a giant key!? Ha!"

With a flourish the golem began to charge towards Sora, causing the Keyblade wielder to narrow his eyes. Tensing, he jumped just as a bronze fist collided into the place he was standing just a second before. With practiced ease, he flipped over an got behind the construct, only for it to seem to melt so that he was face to face with it again instead of getting behind.

"Tch."

Sora's grunt of annoyance escaped before he could contain it, and the golem was swinging again, so there was no more time for thought. He deflected the blow and spun around the fist, before he wrenched his Keyblade upward and sliced the arm clean off of the golem.

Not giving it any time to recover, Sora launched himself towards the construct and pierced his Keyblade right into the center of the things chest. With a mighty battle cry he wrenched the Keyblade upward and utterly decimated the thing by destroying its head. He then flipped off and landed back in his starting position, although now he was crouched into his battled stance, ready for whatever Guiche wanted to throw his way.

However, it looked as though Guiche was at a loss for words. He was staring at his defeated golem and Sora as if he was just seeing the other boy for the first time. Sora merely grinned at his opponent.

"Like I said, it's Sora. S-O-R-A. Got it memorized?"

Guiche snarled as he jabbed the rose five more times, and five more golems rose from the ground, just the same as last time.

"I'll teach you to know your place, COMMONER!"

Guiche roared the last word and the golems took off towards Sora. Sora wasn't sure exactly how the magic here worked, but he was pretty sure that the ability to make five golems independently move and coordinate attacks was pretty impressive. Let's see how these new ones fair.

Sora, instead of dodging the first attack, rolled forward under the golem's outstretched arm and skid behind it only to see that another one was waiting for him and already jabbing a fist toward the ground. With a grunt he raised his Keyblade and blocked the punch, before he pushed back.

It seemed the golem was caught off guard by this and pushed off balance by the counter. Not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, Sora jumped and smacked the golem upward around ten feet, before he used a bit of his own brand of magic and jumped on air, homing in on the now airborne golem. He then proceeded to wail on the thing with a series of slashes and jabs, before finally smacking the thing back down, cratering the ground and making the golem revert back to its natural state.

Sora grinned over at Guiche before he spun and rolled out of the way of another golem's fist. It seemed that they were beginning to coordinate more as another two suddenly appeared and both tried to punch the Keyblade wielder. Sora leapt over the punch and onto the back of one, fully intending to stab at the thing and be done with it, but he had to dodge another punch at the last second from the remaining golem.

"Man, these things put up a better fight than a lot of Heartless. Still…"

Sora trailed off as he contemplated the constructs. True they were pretty fast for their size, but not so fast that he couldn't keep up, he just had to figure out a way to get around those coordinated attacks. Well, there was one way, but he wanted to see if he could actually defeat them with only his Attack skills first.

Decision made, he gave another battle cry and joined into the fray once more. The fight was now become a blur as he dodged and parried almost every attack, but it seemed as though the things were built to try his patience. He could almost imagine Leon laughing his ass off at the trouble Sora was having with these things. The Great Keyblade Master, Defeater of Heartless and Nobodies, reduced to having to dodge and parry simple golems.

True the golems worked pretty well as a team, but all things considered he should have gained the upper hand by now. With a grunt of frustration, he smacked another one into the air, before he wailed on the one that had been trying to hit him by cutting off its arm.

He had noticed that Guiche didn't seem to want to heal these golems, even though they were beginning to take a beating from slamming their fists into the Keyblade so damn much. Sora dodged another attack and noticed that even with the golems arm cut off, Guiche didn't seem to want to heal it. The blonde mage was also perspiring quite a bit in regards to the fight, despite not actually moving around all that much. Did that mean it was taking a lot of energy to keep these things up?

Before he could contemplate that further, he noticed a shadow growing around him, glancing up he saw the golem he had sent flying trying to fall on him. Yeah, that wasn't going to work.

He locked onto his target and kicked off the ground, his initial attack sending the golem even higher than last time. With another double jump he had reached the golem in the air and proceeded to once more wail on the thing, before he used the same move that he had last time to pummel the thing into the ground.

Well, it looked the things were useless once they were in the air. What a glaring weakness.

Sora rolled out of the way once more and flipped over the follow up attack. This was beginning to get kind of annoying. The blonde mage was still trying, even though a good seven minutes had passed since he made the golems. However, it the sweat on his brow was anything to go by, the blonde playboy was beginning to really feel the drain of maintaining so many magical constructs for so long.

Sora blocked another fist and redirected it so that it went flying towards one of its brethren, but at the last second, the construct with no hand flipped over the other that was fling towards it and they both recovered.

Sora quirked an eyebrow at that, well, it looked like Guiche was able to control the golems more smoothly now that there weren't as many of them. It seemed that the blonde noble was of the opinion that quantity equals quality, but what Sora had just seen definitely disputed that notion.

"You damn Commoner, why don't you just stop dodging and die already!?"

Well it seemed that his constant dodging had definitely been a blow to the noble's pride if he was already making death threats. Sora kept an eye on the constructs as he gazed at Guiche.

The blonde was now panting heavily and looking pretty ragged. Sora supposed that was to be expected, especially when they were beginning to push the ten minute mark. Sora on the other hand still felt fresh and could probably outlast Guiche quite easily in a stamina contest. Even if one of the things did hit him, he seriously doubted that they be able to one hit kill him.

"Hey Guiche, you doing alright, you look a little tired?"

Guiche continued to pant as he glared at Sora. Well, maybe it was time to end this crazy duel? Sora glanced at the three golems and realized that Guiche hadn't actually really moved them for awhile. Well then, he supposed it was time to make Guiche realize the extent of his mistake.

"You know, ever since the noble thing has been explained to me something has been bugging me. You nobles all use magic, right?"

Guiche glared at him, but nodded his acknowledgement to the fact.

"Of course, it's how we can stand above the masses, although you need wealth and land as well."

Sora grinned at Guiche's answer, and his expression became downright mischievous.

"Well, when had I ever said that I was a commoner? THUNDAGA!"

Sora roared the last word and dipped into his magic reserves before pointing his Keyblade to the sky. With the word of power released, the lightning came easily and rained on the final three constructs, stopping them cold, before they slowly disintegrated.

Sora had the satisfaction of Guiche's open mouthed shock, as well as many of the students. Capitalizing on Guiche's inaction, Sora sprinted forward until he was right in front of the blonde hair mage and his Keyblade was pressed against the boy's throat. He watched as Guiche gulped nervously, looking at Sora fearfully.

Sora hated to see that fear in someone's eyes, especially directed at him, but Guiche needed to learn not to underestimate anyone.

"Do you yield Guiche de Gramont?"

Slowly, so as not to accidently hurt himself, the blonde noble nodded yes. That was enough for Sora.

"So then, what's my name?"

Guiche gulped as Sora lowered his weapon.

"Sora."

Sora grinned, echoing a sort of friend once more in response to Guiche.

"Got it memorized?"

With that he banished the Keyblade, the fight was obviously over, and he didn't want to terrorize Guiche anymore, he had definitely learned the lesson, before it was too late, unlike Sora.

It was then that Sora looked over to his self proclaimed "Master" and realized that she was gazing at him with a look he couldn't entirely decipher. Perhaps it was jealousy? What did she have to be jealous of?

* * *

Louise entered into the Vestri Court, expecting her Familiar to be a smear on the ground within five minutes. What she had _not_ been expecting was for the brunette she had summoned to bring forth a giant key and then match the first golem that Guiche had made in combat, before he dispatched it easily.

However, she was fairly certain that that had been a fluke, so when Guiche had summoned more golems, she had been once more terrified for her Familiar, but then he astounded everyone that had gathered to watch the spectacle once more as he then proceeded to knock one of the golems high into the air and follow it, before he dispatched it.

He then spent the next few minutes dodging and parrying, before he cut off another's arm. After that he sent another into the air and dispatched it almost the same way as the last. It seemed that whatever kind of commoner (key summoning not withstanding) she had summoned, he was obviously well versed in combat, if the way he was handling those golems was anything to go by.

Finally he did the unthinkable. After talking once more with Guiche, while Guiche was clearly becoming exhausted from the drain of maintaining the golems, her Familiar said it.

"Well, when had I ever said that I was a commoner? THUNDAGA!"

She then watched in disbelief as he summoned lightning to take care of the rest of Guiche's constructs.

That wasn't possible. The universe couldn't be so cruel. Not only had she summoned someone who could do magic when she couldn't, he could generate lightning, something which definitely didn't fall under the four main elements.

"Oh my, his passion is so great it becomes lightning!"

Louise shot a glare at her rival out of reflex, but couldn't help the undeniable jealousy that erupted in her chest. It seemed as though she truly was a failure as a mage. She had even summoned a Familiar who was better at magic than she was.

How could she ever face her family again when news of this spread? She was a failure as a mage and it seemed as if her Familiar was great at it, not only that, but she had been treating him like a commoner the entire time, never once suspecting that he might be a noble. What kind of noble just takes orders to do laundry at face value anyway?

She was now terrified of not only what her sisters and father would say, but also of her mother. Hopefully Sora didn't want to seek retribution from the injustices that Louise had heaped upon him from the Vallière line. Her mother would be furious then.

It was a moment before she realized with a jolt that her Familiar was looking at her funnily, and she tried to school her features, but wasn't entirely sure that she had managed it. It seemed that with a thought he banished that strange key sword (she heard someone mutter, "Who just uses a _giant key_ in a duel?") and began walking towards her.

Eventually he came to a stop and looked her over.

"I told you not to worry too much."

She couldn't help the wry grin that crossed her face at his blunt words. It seemed that he was going to rub that in her face.

"Yes. Yes you did."

Sora looked kindly at her as he rolled his shoulder, looking content.

"I think we need to talk about some things before we move on with this partnership."

Louise thought over everything that happened today and nodded her agreement.

"I think you're right."

* * *

The two were once more ensconced within Louise's room, but there was an addition of Siesta as well to serve some tea.

Louise had been trying to calm herself down since the duel, but she only found herself with questions upon questions, and this annoying person in front of her had all the answers at the moment.

Sora seemed to be slightly amused at her haughtiness, but he could afford to be. He wasn't the one with a magic problem.

Sighing, Louise absently stirred her tea. Had it just been a day ago when she had been more excited than any of the other students to get a Familiar? It seemed that reality was cruel and liked to make jokes at her expense. Honestly, a Familiar that could do spells, and the Master unable to do anything other than make things explode.

Well, she could admit, if only to herself, that she was immensely jealous of her Familiar for being able to cast the spell that he had used so easily. He may even be a triangle mage if that spell didn't even appear to tire him out, perhaps even pushing square.

Sora was also stirring his tea, obviously waiting for her to make the first move. Swallowing her pride she looked over to the maid, who was no help at all as she was staring at Sora with something akin to hero worship in her eyes.

Rolling her eyes at that, Louise gathered her courage and looked across the table to her Familiar.

"I think that you've withheld quite a bit about yourself."

Sora grinned at that and she knew she wasn't gonna like what came next.

"You never asked."

Louise felt as though she might actually tear her hair out in frustration. What kind of answer was that?

Sora just kept grinning at her, obviously enjoying her discomfort.

"Everyone just kind of assumed I couldn't do magic, although they're right about me being a commoner, I wasn't born with magic after all, I had to earn it."

Louise felt shock course through her veins at that admission, and she heard a distinct shattering of glass, signifying that Siesta had dropped her tea cup. Glancing at the black haired maid, she noticed that there was now a veritable shock in the older girl's demeanor and expression. It seemed as though Sora had rattled her with those words. Come to think of it, he had rattle Louise as well.

Turning back to the matter at hand she tried to sort her mind around his admittance. How in the hell had he done that? Killed a noble in some dark magic ritual to gain the power of magic?

She glanced at his open expression and immediately discarded that theory. Whatever else Sora was, it seemed that he was noble to a fault. Gathering her wits about her, she asked the pertinent question to follow up that revelation.

"And, how exactly did you earn magic?"

Sora looked at her for a second as if trying to determine what he was going to tell her. However, it looked as if something in her gaze was enough because he answered her with a question.

"Tell me, have you ever heard of the Keyblade?"

* * *

**Jesus Christ. Did I expect that to be that long? Hell no, this is the longest chapter I have ever written hands down, especially as a first chapter. This little baby has been in the works for quite some time, even before I decided to actually create Lucid Berserker. I had like, the first 1,000 words written, and just kind of petered off once I got into Lucid Berserker. However, I was feeling like I needed to get back in the swing of things after my two months gone and began writing this again, but it wasn't calling to me, so after 2,000 word mark I went and wrote a couple Harry Potter Drabbles and posted those. After that, I just felt the urge to complete this. There were like six other points that I felt like this could have ended, but once I started at 2,000, I couldn't stop, and eventually the actual word count story wise was around 9,500. I have a whole new respect for Engulfing Silence and Kenchi618 who pump these lengths of chapters out like they're going out of style.**

**In any case, Now that I've finally got this out, I'm not sure if I'll continue it, if it gets popular enough I probably will. My Zero no Tsukaima is a little out of whack, been awhile since I've watched that anime, but nothing a good old wiki page couldn't fix, for the most part. Kingdom Hearts has always been one of my favorite franchises, so I think I know enough about that, but I have played 3DS quite yet, so if there is anything in there, I probably missed it. As always, writing the battle scenes came easier to me, but if I want to work on my human element scenes, I'll do it in my new Harry Potter drabble fic. I find it somewhat amusing that I turned to another summoning type anime to bring in a new character, but it just works pretty well, especially if you want to crossover stuff into this fandom, Louise is summoning her Servant from another world after all. Here's to hoping this does become popular so I can continue it, I had a lot of fun writing this demon, even if it was ridiculously long. If I get a decent interest I'll probably pump out another chapter of this length again, though this will probably still take a back seat to Lucid Berserker. Now all I have to do is write that freaking Fate/Zero/Naruto crossover and I got challenged to write something, so I might do that as well. Well I think that's enough rambling on my part, onto my usual spiel before the disclaimer.**

**Any questions, comments, concerns? PM me! As this is brand new, I don't have a beta so there are bound to be typos and grammar errors, almost every 10k chapter I've ever read has those anyway, so if you're interested in betaing, PM me! If you're feeling kind leave a review on the way out. This story is a bit different in that I want to know if I should continue it or not, so I actually do care about reviews, at least for the first chapter. Even though I write for entertainment, I still enjoy reading the reviews that I get, even the crazy ones. I think that's everything, so onto the disclaimer!**

_**Disclaimer: I do not own Kindom Hearts or Zero no Tsukaima. They belong to Square Enix and the late Nobaru Yamaguchi respectively. Please support the official release!**_


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